Tuesday, 17 November 2009

For Jean Quatremer on the Coulisses de Bruxelles blog, prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker from Luxembourg remains the preferred candidate because of his firm and long European engagement.

This is in line with the assessment I have expressed on this blog: “If the heads of government or state are looking for a president of the European Council with experience and engagement in EU affairs, regardless of geography and gender, Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, will win hands down.”

Yes, if we evaluate external criteria, the new EU member states in Central Europe and gender balance are important, in my view, complementary to European engagement and political profile.

Despite the scope for skewed results and manipulation, the Fondation Robert Schuman poll between five potential candidates is an indication of the preferences among EU citizens. A short while ago, the number of votes had risen to 16,526 (almost 8,000 new votes in about three days) and the only woman, Vike-Freiberga, had an overwhelming lead, with 62 per cent of the votes, followed by Juncker on 18 per cent.

If you haven’t participated, you can still express your opinion. The candidates are (in alphabetical order):

Jan Peter Balkenende

Tony Blair

Jean-Claude Juncker

Herman Van Rompuy

Vaira Vike-Freiberga

I still prefer Jean-Claude Juncker for his European experience and engagement, but I admit that the continuing integration of the EU member states in Central Europe and improving the gender balance in the institutions of the European Union are important considerations.

Vaira Vike-Freiberga as the first president of the European Council could signal further integration and emancipation, but her acts and visions in EU affairs have not been scrutinised closely enough. There is still some journalistic work to be done on that front.

Ralf Grahn

P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Read the Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, and discuss our common European future.